Jimanie's Crickets: April Showers

Mason:
- Started swim lessons this month. I wasn't sure how they would go, knowing that we had a hard time at gymnastics once I wasn't supposed to be on the floor with him anymore and he had a new instructor. So we hyped it up, took some easter candy bribes with us, and gave the class lesson a shot. Sure enough, I couldn't even get him to get into the water without holding on to me, and then he just cried and didn't want to leave the side of the pool :(. There were some other frustrations that I don't think helped matters, such as the 2nd instructor hadn't even arrived yet, and they didn't really "intro" the class and ease the kids in even though it was the first day (though other students took lessons the previous month). Anyway, I was commenting to an instructor on the pool deck that someone just really needs to get in and pull him off the side and make him move around... and so he did! (Pictures below). So we decided that for April we would switch over to private lessons with this knight in red with white-cross armor to get the ball rolling on swimming with a non-family instructor.

Jackson:
- He is walking all over the place and talking about anything he can, he is such a mimic! He copies everything other people say and is really picking up words and even songs. 'auce (sauce), 'uffs (puffs), up (both open and up), he loves pointing out "hat" (on every stranger wearing one) and "hot" (whenever there is smoke/steam), balloon is "a-booooooo!!!!!!" (always said with a high level of enthusiasm), dogs say "ff ff" (instead of woof woof), sheep say Baahaaahaaa (like you are laughing out loud).
- We stopped nursing this month. That was a hard decision for me, because I'm pretty sure this is our last baby, so this is the end of an era for us. There's a lot of excitement in that, but also some sadness. Sweet moments cuddling with my babies, providing nutrition and comfort to them in a way that only I could. But I knew we had another trip coming up, and it would be easier for us there if he didn't need to nurse, and also take one of the stressors away from my work day. So we started by trying to take out his mid-day feeding and keep the morning and night time ones. But that seemed to make him want to nurse more and more often, so we ended up just stopping cold turkey and that was only a struggle for a few days. He seems great now, eating solid foods with an amazing appetite, and has really increased his drinking of cows milk.

- This kids love for balls and balloons does not waiver - he points them out on movies and in books, and will keep flipping back to the page to see them instead of wanting to read ahead.

- One day, he was apparently dreaming of balls at school, they thought he was awake and asking for a ball, but apparently he was saying "ball, ball, ball" in his sleep!

Balls and walking!

Mas and Jack both had the stomach bug one day - throwing up all day long. Poor sweet Mas barely ever got off the couch (he enjoyed 2 days of LOTS of movies). Jackson on the other hand was still able to muster up enough energy for a few Danger Ranger stunts.

I tried to get Mason to do some egg dying, but he really wasn't too into it - I know he still wasn't feeling that great (and I imagine the vinegar smell doesn't help).